Tires Nokia or NANKANG
I'm a Michelin fan myself, but I've heard good things about Nokian. Judging by the tread pattern alone, that's a very agressive tire that'll likely work incredibly well on the WRX.
They are amazing. Nokian made the first ever winter tire, back in the 20s or 30s IIRC. I have them on all my Subarus and they make winter driving seem like summer for all “normal” driving applications, within reason (ie. driving like a normal person). For spirited driving yeah you’ll loose grip eventually but you’ll be surprised just how far these will go. Just remember how winter tires work. They accumulate snow on the treads and that grips way more than bare rubber. If you find yourself sliding on black ice and can aim for some snow, you’ll be surprised how much grip you can get back.. assuming you have the room for it. Anyway, they won’t make you completely invincible, but it’s about as good as you’re going to get!
I love my Hakkas. I’ve had them on my 2017 WRX as well as several other cars. Very grippy in even the worst conditions.
I had these on my wrx, I felt completely invincible on the road in the winter. (as long as I didn't do anything too dumb)
The absolute best winter tire I’ve ever ran. You need to be very careful not to run them during warm weather when spring comes around, they will wear away like pencil erasers. I waited until late April one year and lost 2/32s of tread in less than two months.
You can't beat Nokians. I go out of my way to acquire them for all winter tire applications.
No contest between Nokian and anything else.
Snow grip wise, I'd say a Nokian or even Kleber has very good winter tires.
They don’t seem to have got a mention yet, but the generally accepted ‘best track tyre for lowest price’ is the Nankang NS-2R. Right at the bottom of the price range for semi-slicks so obviously it’s performance isn’t at the same level as bigger brands semi-slicks, or eve Nankang’s own AR-1s (which most agree is a genuinely good semi-slick), but performs better on track than more expensive road/summer tyres in the dry.
NS2 review: I've never been able to get them balanced properly and they're loud. Even forced balanced on brand new wheels, I got highway vibrations. That said, they're inexpensive, last decently long for the price, handle water extremely well and they stretch nicely. They handle water better than falken 512's, 452's and hankook v12 evo's. I've had 4 sets and I've never had a bubble or other failure.
Hate to be a neighsayer, but I've haven't been really impressed with the Nokian Hakkas. For all the praise they get on the forums, I was pretty disappointed with how they performed. I live in Central NY so we get tons of snow, so I got to test them out in a variety of conditions and they never really seemed to have traction. I had a set of 195 wide studless tires on my Golf. Upgraded to a GTI and the previous owner threw in a set of 225 studded Hakkas with the car. So I've tried these studded and studless, and have tried narrow and wide tires. I'm looking to try some Blizzaks this year if I can get my hands on them. A family member had them on their FWD Audi and the traction on them seemed really impressive; we were driving on a road that was completely covered in snow and he was swerving left and right and the car rode like it was on rails.
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